Talk about falling off the wagon

I keep slacking at updates. That sucks. Okay, back to updating.

We were in New Orleans back in the middle of May and found a 3 miler to race called the Al Briede Gold Cup. It was a nice flat course through City Park with people at every mile yelling out times and encouragement. For a small race they did it up right. Friendly people, music, jumbalaya after the race(?!) and best of all a Budweiser trailer. Four taps, 2 Buds, 2 Bud Lights. Free. No one busting your balls for a ticket. No limits. Just drink after the race until the thing is empty. Nice. Kristen was 2nd female overall and 1st in her age group. I won a t-shirt so I got that going for me which is nice.

We signed up for the Laguna Beach Memorial Day Half Marathon, but we really didn't think about it enough. We weren't able to pick up our packets and bibs the day before which meant that we would have had to get there by 6:15 to give us time to park and get our stuff and get organized in time for the 7am start. We live in Long Beach so as any runner knows, there's a morning pre-race ritual and then you have to drive to the race. To be in Laguna Beach by 6:15am we would have had to get up at 4am. We had a party to go to later that day so the night before we decided to bag it and eat the fee. We offered it up to friends, but I guess they were all smarter than us.

On June 11th we ran the Long Beach Wrigley River run 5k/10k which I've done in the past. It's a nice event. Small, but well organized. Kristen had a bum toe, but still managed to PR for the 10k and win 1st place in her age group. I was off my 5k PR by 10 seconds again. Whatever dude.

So I picked up a new hobby. I've been brewing beer for a few months and have really gotten into it. I have a 5 gallon batch of Kolsch fermenting now that I will bottle tomorrow. It needs to condition in the bottle for 2 weeks and then it'll be ready to drink. 5 gallons equals anywhere between 43 and 48 bottles of beer. Sweeeeet! I have to figure out which beer to brew up next. Hmmm. Maybe I'll have to change the name of this blog. Winebeerandthefinishline?

Wrigley River Run 10k

Kristen was in New York this weekend so I ran the Long Beach Wrigley River 10k yesterday solo. Didn't do as well as I thought I should have. But I screwed myself. Through process of elimination I've come to the conclusion that my hip flexors and abductors and upper glutes are lagging behind the rest of my body in terms of strength and endurance.  I lift weights 3 days a week, but I don't like to do heavy lifting with my legs anymore. I used to do squats and lunges, etc., but then I'd be sore as hell for 3 days. That's okay if you sit at a desk all day, but I don't so it became a real problem at work. It also makes training hard doing tempo runs and speed work REALLY difficult. Regardless, I decided that I had to do a little lower body to strengthen the aforementioned muscles. Stupidly, I chose deadlifts. It is the best all around strengthening exercise, but it can tear you up bad. I even lifted what I considered light weights, but sure enough on Friday I was sooooore. I thought, "I'll be okay tomorrow for the run. This soreness will be gone by then. And even if there's a little residual soreness, I'll run it out." Wrong.

I woke up Saturday still hurting, cursing myself for not thinking ahead. Anyway, I ran the race, upper thighs bitching at me every single step of the way, and came in about 20 seconds slower than my last 10k back in February.  Argh. There were two sharp turns followed by short uphill climbs that may have added a few seconds overall, but I know I was my own worst enemy. Oh well. I'll be smarter next time I hope.

Meanwhile, Kristen was back running again, but now her ca-nkle is giving her a hard time, swollen and achy. I think she was subconsciously trying to protect the healing hairline fracture in her foot and altered her stride enough to cause her ankle to get tweaked. Danger-prone Daphne, that's my wife. Don't know how long this one is going to stop her. Arrrrgghghghghg.